Henry Schein joint venture gives dentists more bite

Open wide: A joint venture between Henry Schein and a California-based digital solutions specialist will offer new technological opportunities to worldwide dental practices.

July 5, 2018

By GREGORY ZELLER //

Long Island’s largest public company has completed a joint venture that creates a brand-new enterprise focused specifically on the delivery of new dental technologies to practice groups around the world.

Melville-based Henry Schein Inc., a leading global provider of healthcare products and services, announced this week the formation of Henry Schein One, spawned by a partnership with California-based Internet Brands, a portfolio company of New York City-based global investment firm KKR & Co.

Financial terms of the joint venture, which was first announced in April, were not disclosed. But Henry Schein claims 70 percent ownership of the new entity, which will be run by Chief Executive Officer James Harding – formerly Henry Schein’s chief technology officer – and a board of directors comprised of senior management from both Internet Brands and the Melville mothership.

Based in American Fork, Utah, home of Henry Schein’s Practice Solutions division, Henry Schein One will “deliver integrated dental technology to help the profession improve practice management and marketing as well as patient communication,” Henry Schein said this week.

Stanley Bergman: Fundamental approach.

Specifically, the new company will combine Henry Schein Practice Solutions’ leading dental-practice management systems and products – including popular offerings like Dentrix, Easy Dental and TechCentral – with Internet Brands’ web-based solutions, including Demandforce, Officite and DentalPlans.com.

The big idea is to create cutting-edge tech solutions that address dental practice-management challenges created by the current lack of such tools – an effort that both “advances our dental business strategy” and “builds a powerful new engine that will enable dental professionals to be more efficient and … deliver high-quality care to patients,” according to Henry Schein Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Stanley Bergman.

“We firmly believe that the products, services and solutions we will deliver through our combined expertise are fundamental to what practitioners value and essential to driving demand for their business success,” Bergman said this week.

Combined, Henry Schein Practice Solutions and Internet Brands boasted roughly $400 million in 2017 sales. Henry Schein One is projecting “annual synergies” of between $20 million and $30 million by the end of 2021, Henry Schein said this week.

To reach those lofty levels, Henry Schein One will “leverage Henry Schein’s strength in practice-management software with our leading digital-marketing applications to help each member of the dental team work smarter and faster,” according to Internet Brands CEO Bob Brisco.

“We are very excited about what we can do together to strengthen and expand our combined product offerings,” Brisco said in a statement.